Sony Strikes Back: What We Know About the Bungie Deal

It would seem that just recently, the gaming industry was shaken by the news of Activision Blizzard's departure under the wing of Microsoft. But this, as it turned out, the surprises are not over. Because on the last day of January, Sony Corporation announced the purchase of the studio Bungie - the one thanks to which we have Halo and Destiny universes. It's a good time to tell you why this deal is noteworthy.

Although companies are considered to be rivals, in the case of Sony the scale of acquisitions is much more modest than that of Microsoft. Because Bungie was bought for $ 3.6 billion, while the amount of transactions with Activision Blizzard is estimated at 68.7 billion. In this case, the authors of Halo and Destiny will remain autonomous: formally changing the owner, the development team remains an independent subsidiary company under the previous director - Pete Parsons. They will even be able to make and publish games independently without any pressure from "big brother". And the focus on different platforms, judging by the official statements, will not go anywhere.

The noteworthy part of the deal is that from 2000 to 2007, Bungie was a division of Microsoft. The studio's shooter Halo: Combat Evolved served as a kind of advertisement for the first Xbox console and gave rise to an entire series. Now the Halo universe is occupied by another team - 343 Industries, and Bungie, which became a part of Activision in 2010, switched to Destiny. So the Sony's decision to buy the famous development team can be seen as a response to the actions of a competitor.